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Spring Fling Tournament arrives next weekend!
Pickleball players from Sequim, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, Bainbridge, Seattle, Canada, and beyond will be streaming into town next week to play in Sequim Picklers’ Spring Fling Tournament, Friday, June 10, through Sunday, June 12, at Carrie Blake Park, under the direction of Pickleball Is Great.* The competition begins promptly at 8 a.m. all three days.
An army of Sequim Picklers volunteer-members** will announce the events, register participants, replenish food and coffee, direct parking, and run score sheets to Pickleball is Great Tournament Facilitators. Our first Spring Fling tournament, held prior to Covid, helped establish Sequim Picklers’ reputation as a Club that could mount a well-organized, fun, and competitive event.
You won’t want to miss it!
*Pickleball Is Great reserves the right to refuse service and refund any player at any time.
**Volunteers report for duty at 7 a.m.
‘Deets’ about the Spring Fling Tournament
This skill/age tournament will be all Round-Robin with a shootout of the top three or four teams (contingent on the time/number of players within the event) for gold, silver, and bronze medals (for a non-pool event). Winning teams are determined as follows:
—Round-Robin win/loss record
—If two teams tie, head-to-head shootout with those teams
—If three or more teams tie, total points taken from all matches played in the Round-Robin
—If an event has eight or more teams, the event may be divided into two pools with the top two teams from each pool taking part in the shootout. The top team from Pool 1 will play second team from Pool 2 and the top team from Pool 2 will play second team from Pool 1. The winning teams will play each other for gold/silver. Losing teams will play each other for bronze.
—Brackets may be combined or split as needed.
DOCO* Update (*Director of Court Operations)
Hello Picklers, I hope all is well with your pickleball playing and that you are getting a good mix of social play, competitive play, and instructional play. The weather is just starting to cooperate.
Club-wide Clinics on the Way in July!
We have the okay from the city to hold the first Club-wide Clinic, scheduled for Saturday, July 16, starting at 1 p.m. There will be another clinic on Sunday, July 17 from 8 a.m. to Noon. These two days will be separate clinics.
The Clinic will last around four hours, with the first half concentrating on building a soft game and the last half on building weapons. We did it this way to accommodate more people. The cost is $100 for members and $125 for nonmembers. I would like to have the days somewhat set by level. It will make it easier to teach if there are similar skill sets.
— The first day will be 2.5-3.0-ish
— The second day will be 3.0-ish and up
I have some leeway here, so talk to me if you have to come one day or another and don’t quite fit. Email me at pickleballkendal@gmail.com to reserve your spot in this special clinic.
High-level coach and player Devin Schmidt is leading the clinic. Check out his information at https://www.devinschmidtpb.com/. Devin is trying to schedule his time here. If we get a lot of signups, then he will need to bring more instructors on board.
Please do not wait until the last minute to sign up. I would ask that you evaluate this opportunity right away and sign-up if you are wanting a top-level camp experience.
More Play News
Ladder League is Tuesday nights at 5:30 p.m. All levels are welcome. Once the group gets there, we give each person a number then play starts with each person playing games with a different partner. Scores are recorded for entry into the ratings formula. If we have a huge group, we will divide into two or more groups. Libby Hartman and Cris Gonzalez will be leading this evening. This week, we had 15 people for Ladder Play.
Instructional Play at noon on Fridays is going well. The last couple of Fridays have been wet and we have mostly drilled. Last week, we were light on 4.0s, so we played a Rover game with six players on the court. The next session we will talk briefly about lob defense, then we will play some games. Come out and measure your play against the Club’s 4.0 players.
Tournament News
Please support the Sequim Picklers’ Spring Fling Tournament, June 10-11-12. If you are not playing, plan on being there to help during the tournament. There is so much to do. I need help to run the Food Station on Saturday during Mixed Play. Please email me if you can help. Thanks.
We have a reputation for running a top-notch event. There will be people coming from all over to play. As a Sequim Pickler, you should come out and be a part of it and take pride in this great event sponsored by our Club.
PCOC — Guardians of the Courts
If you’ve noticed how nice the shed looks, that’s thanks to the newest member of our Pickleball Court Operations Committee (PCOC), Sequim Pickler Rob Wright. Rob is representing the Club in court maintenance and doing a fantastic job. We have also secured an off-site storage locker to store items we do not need at the courts from day to day. Thanks to the Board for allowing this needed expense.
Please see the members of the PCOC with any questions or suggestions on court operations. Committee members are Daryl Ness (Assistant Director of Court Operations), Cris Gonzalez, David Goose, Libby Hartman, Bill Schiffman, and Rob Wright.
Thanks. –Kendal Wake, Director of Court Operations, USA-Pickleball Ambassador
Pickleball Rules!
Question: A team is stacking and returning the serve. They do not adjust to their stacking plan and stay on the wrong side for the serve. The serve hits outside the serve box and is called out without being hit by the return team. As the ball is dead before the wrong receiver hits it, is it a loss of serve? Or does the correct receiver being on the wrong side to hit the return make it a point for the service team?
Answer: Good question! The ball is served correctly, and SHOULD have been returned. The ball is in play at that point. However, it landed out, so it was not returned. Where is the fault?
Rule 4.N.1 states that it is a fault if “the incorrect player returns the serve.” Returning the serve means actually making contact with the ball. That did not happen in this case, so the ball “Out” is the first point where the fault occurred. Therefore, it is the second server, or side-out, for the serving team, and the receiving team got a break.
—Have a question about something that happened on the court? Send it to me at Kathryn (“K.T.”) Thomas, Registered Trainer of Referees.
Did you know?
As of May 26, 2022, your AmazonSmile purchases have supported our Sequim Picklers Club 29 times! Win-win!
